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POLITICO 44

On this day in 1981, former Rep. Carl Vinson (D-Ga.), the first person to serve more than 50 years in the House, died at age 97 in his his hometown, Milledgeville, Ga. He has been called “the Father of the Two-Ocean Navy.”

Vinson was 30 and the youngest member of Congress when he was sworn in on Nov. 3, 1914. Shortly after World War I, he joined the House Naval Affairs Committee, rising to become its ranking Democratic member in the early 1920s.

He spent 26 consecutive terms in the House, much of it as chairman of the House Armed Services Committee. His service record of 50 years and one month stood until 1994, when it was surpassed by Rep. Jamie Whitten (D-Miss.).

When President Harry S. Truman persuaded Congress to merge the military service branches under a secretary of defense, he reportedly offered the job to Vinson. “Shucks,” Vinson demurred, “I’d rather keep running the Pentagon from up here.”

In guiding military-related legislation through the House, Vinson set a rule that committee members could ask a witness one question for each year they had been on the panel.

When Vinson finally retired, he left the Capitol without fanfare, boarding a train to Georgia on Christmas Day, 1964. “My policy,” he told a reporter, “is to wear out, not rust out.”

At age 96, Vinson was the first living individual to have a U.S. Navy vessel — the third Nimitz-class nuclear aircraft carrier — named in his honor. He attended the launching in Newport News, Va. The USS Carl Vinson remains in active service.

Vinson had no children. His grandnephew, Sam Nunn, was a senator from Georgia. Nunn continued the family tradition by serving on the Senate Armed Services Committee for nearly all his 25-year career.